How to grow your SaaS business? Learn about four sales strategies you can use.
Nowadays, it’s very simple for companies to buy software. However, that doesn’t mean that all SaaS providers will succeed.
Selling SaaS is a lot of work. In order to be successful in sales, SaaS providers should take responsibility for educating, engaging, and supporting potential customers.
But what does the term SaaS even mean? SaaS stands for software as a service. It is a way of delivering applications as a service over the Internet.
So, instead of installing and maintaining software, you simply access it on the Internet. That way, you’re avoiding difficult software and hardware management.
SaaS applications are also known as Web-based software, on-demand software, or hosted software. They run on a SaaS provider’s servers. The provider manages access to the application, security, availability, and performance.
It sounds so complicated and many aspiring talents might be put off by this term. But, it doesn’t have to be.
There are actually some best practices and strategies that will help you get started and create a sales machine for your SaaS business.
We asked our community of business development professionals and they recommend these 4 sales strategies to help sell your SaaS business.
1. Invest in content marketing
The goal of content marketing is to attract, engage and convert visitors into leads.
In a highly competitive marketplace, SaaS businesses can stand out from the crowd by educating potential customers about their needs and issues and over time and providing solutions to their problems.
Investing in content marketing for selling a SaaS product is crucial because it enables you to demonstrate what you have to offer to the public.
You can create educational content on how your product helps your customers, or maybe case studies with clients who already experienced the benefits of your product.
Starting from raising awareness all the way until after the sale, content marketing will help you build trust with your audience.
Through its different strategies, you guide potential customers along the sales funnel until they become users of your SaaS product.
Create content that addresses the needs of your ideal customers and serves your customers in a purposeful way. Also, include testimonials from influential people or companies that have used your Saas product and are very happy with the results.
2. Include human touch and make it easy for prospects to contact you
Your Saas product will not be sold by itself. Potential buyers need human assistance and support, that way they will build trust much faster. And selling SaaS without trust is a difficult task.
Because buyers rely on the seller’s promise to deliver certain functionality and service within their application, but typically, they have many different options.
Therefore, include a human element in your SaaS business. Make sure that your SaaS specialists are present in the marketplace. As trusted technical advisors, they must provide support to end-users.
For instance, they should help with all elements of SaaS application onboarding, such as setup, implementation, training, and tutorials. Also, they should provide guidance with the features and functions of the technologies of your application.
Human touch is crucial during onboarding. These first evaluative days after a user signs up and begins using the application are significant and must be well-supported.
At that point, users need the most help. Because in this stage there is the highest risk of them becoming frustrated and giving up on the service.
A positive onboarding experience can have a significant influence on the long-term success of the customer relationship. It will open new opportunities to recommend and sell other software services in the future.
Finally, give potential customers more options to contact you. There are many different ways such as through email, a contact form, on the phone, or live chat.
Give them as many options as possible, so that they can easily reach you and learn more about your business. That way you will convert potential customers into paying customers much faster.
3. Be customer-oriented
Trust is the key to every good business relationship.
So, don’t shoot to sell before understanding what prospects need. Set up loyalty and trust first. Get to know customers’ pain points and needs. That way you will become a trusted partner instead of just a service provider.
When selling SaaS products, a different mindset is essential. Potential customers and their issues and needs always have to be a priority. Then a sales professional can offer the best software solutions to match these needs.
Once customers realize the value that they are getting from the application, they will convert into users. At that point, a salesperson becomes a trustworthy counselor and the main influence in a higher customer retention rate.
Therefore, to sell SaaS successfully, the most important thing is to listen first. To be effective, you should build a customer profile.
To do so, you need an in-depth understanding of who the customers are and what are their pain points. This will facilitate finding the right solution to fit the right issue.
4. Offer free trials
In order to boost your sales, you should offer a free trial of the software. The goal of a free trial is to convert those trial users to paid customers. That’s why you should make it as simple as possible.
Make activation easy so users can register in just a few steps. Activation should require a simple registration.
For instance, ask just for an e-mail and a password. Also, consider setting up a chain of communications to engage with your trial users as the free trial progresses. In addition, deliver value during the free trial. This will assure higher conversion rates.
Finally, keep your free trials short. A long free trial might seem like a good way to attract your customer.
However, that will just do damage to your business. Free trials shouldn’t last any longer than 2 weeks. Most of the trial users don’t use free trials for the full period. The majority of them pull out after approximately three days.
Users take short trials more seriously. If the trial is too long, potential customers might procrastinate, and then they forget.
On the other hand, with a shorter trial, they are more likely to try it immediately. When they are time-limited, they want to test as many product features as possible in a given period.
To conclude
As long as you’re customer-oriented, you will thrivingly sell your SaaS products. Buying software has never been as easy as it’s nowadays.
To be able to sell successfully, you have to take an active role in educating, engaging, and supporting your customers.
Selling SaaS is hard, but not impossible. If you use these 4 sales strategies, you’ll significantly increase your chances of success.
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